It was only five years ago that Nava was playing in the independent Golden Baseball League for the Chico (Calif.) Outlaws -- with Parent as his manager.

Parent, who played in the majors for parts of 13 seasons, was more than thrilled to see Nava, 29, who hit a grand slam in his first major league at-bat with Boston in 2010 and is batting .265 in 55 games this season -- mostly in the absence of Carl Crawford.

"I saw everything," Parent said of Nava, who batted .371 with 12 home runs for Chico and was eventually signed by the Red Sox. "I wondered why this kid didn’t get an opportunity. You find out maybe he got sick or got in the weight room all of a sudden. But he had good swings from both sides of the plate. He ran well and threw well.

"You can just tell he wanted it more than the regular guy. He wasn’t a selfish kid. He was a good teammate. He never wanted attention. He just wanted to get on with it. He knew he was supposed to be somewhere, and not in independent ball."

Parent said he had no ambition of getting back into organized baseball after managing in the Class-A California League with Lancaster in 2000.

"When I was doing that, I was doing it purely for those kids to get a second chance or first chance, and for my kids to have a place to work out," said Parent, who managed Chico from 2005-07.

"It worked out that after three years of doing that, I really enjoyed the kids. At the same time, I got tired of the business end of it. But guys like Nava, the son of my agent (John Boggs) and Goose Gossage's kid made it a lot of fun. “